Man runs into burning house, dies

FORTY SEVEN-year-old Rafi Mohammed who had Down Syndrome perished when his house caught fire earlier yesterday. The wooden structure located in Tulsa Trace, Debe, is believed to be over 100 years old. Mohammed’s mother Shairoon Mohammed, 87, who also lived in the house, managed to escape the fire with help from relatives.

According to police reports at around 1pm yesterday, a fire broke out in the old building and quickly spread throughout the house. Mohammed refused to leave the despite pleas from his aunts and cousins. “He ran into the fire and sat under the swing while relatives cried out to him,” his cousin Farana Mohammed said.

She said relatives were bawling and screaming, begging Mohammed, to run but he did not come out. Farana said Mohammed rarely left his home and even though he saw the blaze he refused to leave.

Mohammed’s aunt Nazra Baksh, 69, who tried to pull her nephew out of the fire is now hospitalised at the San Fernando General Hospital with burns to her back and hands. Mohammed caretaker, Judy Toll is also warded as she sustained burns to her chest and hands attempting to get Mohammed out of the burning house.

When Newsday visited, Mohammed (Shairoon) was sitting in the hammock at her daughter’s house which is also on Tulsa Trace. She was surrounded by her relatives who tried to console her. Her daughter Nazra said her mother knew the house was destroyed by fire but she does not know that her son died. “She asked for him several times but we cannot tell her what happened as yet,” Nazra said.